Now HP is killing off its Windows
7-based Slate before it even hits the market according to TechCrunch.
If you recall, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made
a big deal about HP's Slate at this year's CES in Las Vegas.
Ballmer actually brought a prototype device out on stage with him
during his keynote address to the tech community.

TechCrunch's sources reveal that
HP
is simply unimpressed with Windows 7 as a platform for a
touch-based tablet device. HP is also said to be nixing the idea of
using Intel's Atom processors for any future Slate devices due to
demanding power requirements.

The latter point is quite poignant as
it is one
of the negatives that HP pointed out in company slides comparing
the Slate to Apple's
successful iPad. Apple's iPad is good for 10 to 12 hours of real
world use thanks to its lightweight iPhone OS and power sipping A4
processor. HP, on the other hand, lists the Slate's battery life at
5+ hours when running on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor (Z530). The
relatively poor battery life of the Slate comes despite the fact that
it packs a 30 Wh battery while the iPad features only a 25 Wh
battery.

With Windows 7 and Intel now apparently
out of the picture, that leaves Android/webOS and ARM processors for
future Slate devices. HP said on Wednesday that it would be "doubling
down on webOS" and that it would "scale it across multiple
connected devices".

Considering that many have been
somewhat unimpressed with Palm's recent hardware -- namely the Pre
and Pixi -- but adore webOS, it would be quite interesting to see
what HP can do with a tablet based on its newly acquired operating
system and speedy ARM hardware.

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The idea of using WebOS makes sense, but I doubt that HP would lock themselves into ONLY using ARM. It is possible that WebOS could be made to run on an x86 processor based machine, which would avoid them being locked in.

A big thing here is that the UI is what tends to make or break a portable device. Since WebOS has a good look and feel to it, HP likes the idea of putting it on tablets.

I don't think Atom is equal to ARM right now, but with another die shrink or two it will be. Of course, HP can go ahead and start the process of porting it to x86 now.

Using Win7 on a (relatively) small touch device is not a good idea. Win 7 is just not friendly to small screen touch devices. How long have tablet PC's running Windows been around and still failed to get much market share? Apple used it's head by using it's iPhone OS rather than OS X, MS confirmed it by using it's Zune OS on it's new phones.

I like WebOS. Hopefully HP will take the ball and run it for a touchdown. Competition is good.

Atom is superior to ARM in every way except power efficiency. The problem is that Atom is being burdened by running a large and hungry OS and ARM/Tegra is getting to run extremely lightweight OS's like iPhone, WebOS, and Android.

Have you seen the pricing on all those Win-based tablet PCs that have been available for the past 3-4 years? They are aimed at businesses so the price has been out of control. $1500 for a tablet?!? No thanks.

For UI the underlying OS matters but what *really* matters is applications. People generally don't 'use their OS' they use their OS to use applications. As long as the OS provides the capabilities needed for slicked-up touch applications Win 7 is ok and you can use any non-touchcentric program too if you like. So the problem is getting that slicked-up touch application base going.

True but I don't think you need a huge app store to have a chance either. A good web browser (with Flash support), e-mail/messaging clients, and media players is probably 90% of what these devices will be used for, just like on the phones.

Additional apps richen the experience, but wouldn't kill a WebOS tablet as long as the primary uses (web/media/email/im) work well, and from all I've read they do on WebOS.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Ipad was a game changer for HP and MS. The problem is that the Ipad is the extension of a well established platform (apps, music, UI) that neither MS or HP have at the moment. MS has the advantage to build on WP7 or Zune, but one isn't shipping and the other isn't that big of a seller. MS always relied on Windows for product familiarity when moving into new markets, but it appears that Apple has taken that play from the MS gameplan.With the exception of the Xbox, MS has trouble utilizing the leverage of Windows in markets other than the PC.

True, and the xBox runs a customised OS which bears no resemblance to Windows. I think that the noble goal of having a product line (Windows) which looks and feels similar on all devices from desktops to laptops to tablets netbooks, phones and media players is now not where its at. Even Windows 7 is clearly not designed or optimised properly for touch displays on portable devices in the same way that the iPhone OS or the WEBOS is.

I think Google stand the biggest chance of competing with the iPad, but Apple have the first to market advantage once again and alot depends on the hardware and how polished it is.

This cancellation is a bit of a slap in the face for MS as yes clearly HP is looking to leverage Web OS in a revised Slate-like device which isn't viewed as a poor-mans' iPad.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe the market is limited to Apple Fans and HP figured that out.

For me I have no use for an iPhone, iPad or really any smart phone. I don't use an iPod or any other MP3 player because I rarely listen to music. What would the iPad or other Tablet device do for me that I can't do at my computer at home. I surely won't be using one while I am driving, and if I am out fishing or mowing the lawn I wouldn't be able to use one, I honestly can't think of any way it would be useful to me.

Hp, you had such an amazing device with the HP tc1100 that it hurt. All you had to do is the following:

- At least a 1.6Ghz atom or at least a Z515- AT least 2Gb ram, max 4Gb- Crucial SSD drive or a standard 2.5. NO 1.8" Craptatstic HDs- Usual Intel GPU that does HD- Same screen size as the tc1100- Multi touch like the Latitude XT- Windows 7 Home Premium x32

Then, set the DAMN DPI to 125% (Could reviewers PLEASE mention this important tweak as this alone makes Windows 7 considerably better for touch!)

No crapware/bloatware, really good drivers that work out of the box (Are you listening Archos?) and maybe, just maybe, one of you OEMs actually tweak the OS to the customers advantage (Services etc)

I'd buy it. Instead I'm looking towards the HP 2740p (Would have considered the Toshiba M780 but no multi-touch????)

1.6 Atom? Hell no, I'd rather have a proper cpu like a Core 2 Duo or Core i3 in culv form (remember the tc1100 started out like this, a Pentium M at 1Ghz). The TC1100 also had discrete graphics iirc (although they weren't great).

The TC1100 also had that fucking awesome detachable keyboard. Yeah, the TC1100 was pretty much the perfect machine at the time.

No. x86. For one, this atom doesn't support 64-bit IIRC, and even then what's the point?And your solution to low battery life is to pack in more powerful hardware? A CULV Intel would use at least twice as much power alone. Keep in mind this is supposed to compete with other similar devices, and if you need more power that's what a laptop is for.

I was not planning on buying a slate computer either way for a few more years at least. The HP was actually one of the _only_ ones that currently looked appealing. Now that they are moving away from x86, Windows 7 and--full computing ability, I just have to throw this one in the trash with all the others.

I see no point, no point at all in spending serious money (500.00+) on a slate/tablet device that is not fully computing capable--i.e. an open platform like a true PC.

I used to think that as well, but in reality, what I would do on any such device (including my laptop) is use it to browse the web, check email, music, read stuff and use the odd app like office. I wouldn't be doing my photo editing or video encoding on it lol. I agree that *on paper* what you specified seems ideal, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired, in any form i've seen it done (e.g. Dell XT2), hence HP killed the Slate to concentrate on a WEBOS version which will probably have the same limitations as the iPad, have fewer apps and worse design. Is this good news? Only for Apple...

HP should not be trying to beat Apple at their own game. They should be trying to make a pad device that is better at the things that iPad is bad at.

I don't think the 10 hour figure is really all that important anyway. Sure more is better, but I would never use the iPad for 10 hours straight. I would definitely trade a few hours of battery life for stronger performance or more features. If battery life was their major reasoning for turning away from win7 then they are morons, 5+ hours is perfectly fine if it means supporting a higher res screen and 720p video playback.

Why would you want 720p playback on a tablet device? Presumably to output it to a tv or something? Watching it on a 10" screen seems pointless at best given that in tv terms you need at least 40" to see a massive difference between that and a decent SD picture...Ditto with the higher res screen, that would just make all the icons much smaller and harder to use wouldn't it?

I don't really agree, the nature of capacitive screens and touch interfaces in general do not necessarily match very well with small screen sizes at higher resolutions.

Things would be pretty small on a 10" screen at 1268x720, not exactly the best kind of thing for a touch driven interface that requires larger buttons and such.(i know Win7 has stuff like this built in, but its just not the same) Even the android tablets I have seen around the web look more impressive right now.

I use a W7 tablet and it's very far from ideal - as a matter of fact it's an extremely shortsighted design from Microsoft, released in 2009 October, with this shitty, craptastic touch support, stupid legacy window scrolling, sliding etc.

Of course, one would easily argue that this is typical from MShit and I would agree - hence HP is smart ditching this entire crap and getting an awesome mobile OS with Palm.

Not sure why you got rated down, but I agree. I wouldn't want to use Windows 7 on this sort of device - it was a product destined for failure. It makes perfect sense to put the Palm WebOS on something like this.

While I'm somewhat surprised to see the Slate killed off, it makes perfect sense in light of the Palm acquisition. HP has already said they're committed to webOS, particularly as it relates to tablets, so there's no need for Win7. Shifting focus away from Intel to ARM allows them to use webOS without having to worry about getting it to work with x86 (probably wouldn't be too difficult but the move still saves time/resources), in addition to getting better battery life and comparable performance.

Sad that we'll have to wait a bit longer for a competitor to the iPad, but if HP does this right, a webOS based Slate should be infinitely better than a Win7 based Slate.

A Slate II with webOS and nVidia's Tegra2 (inc. dual Cortex-A9 processors) would be a very interesting (and power-sipping) product indeed. No problem running accelerated-Flash either...... Might be a very interesting poke in Stevie's eye.